What transpired when Sourav Ganguly bumped into old mate Rahul Dravid

The Delhi Daredevils team flight back home from Kolkata was delayed, and so, on Monday, a chance encounter took place between two of India’s most revered cricketers, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, reports The Telegraph.

Sourav, now the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, had been in a private meeting at the Taj Bengal hotel, where the Daredevils had been put up. The Daredevils had lost Sunday’s match by 9 wickets, and their mood would have further plummeted on hearing that Monday’s flight had been delayed. Their flight from New Delhi to Kolkata had also been delayed. Ironically, both the flights were of a carrier which is a commercial partner of DD.

Daredevils mentor Rahul Dravid and coach Paddy Upton were waiting at the hotel lobby, waiting for updates on their flight, when Sourav walked out. The CAB President walked over and there were ‘hello’s exchanged.

Dravid admiringly looked over what Sourav was wearing (grey trousers and a white shirt), and said “A safari suit would be next.”

Laughing, Sourav replied: "That would take another 20 years."

He also told Dravid that he looked good in his sportsman’s gear. Later he wanted to know if the Eden pitch had been good enough, and received approval from the DD mentor.

Good that Sourav is an administrator: Dravid

Later, Dravid said about the shift from being a cricketer to an administrator, "It's challenging, there always are challenges... However, there's nothing that Sourav can't face... It's good that he's an administrator."

Both Dravid and Ganguly made their debuts in the same Test, Lord’s 1996, and both wrote themselves into collective immortality with their 318-run partnership against Sri Lanka in the 1999 ODI World Cup.

While Ganguly has taken over from Jagmohan Dalmiya as the head of Bengal cricket, Dravid’s coaching run with India A and India U-19 has made him a frontrunner for the India coaching role. He was asked about that as well, but he deigned to give away anything.

Earlier, he had said that he would be considering it, but had pointed to his already existing commitments.

Dravid’s Daredevils next face Kings XI Punjab at home on Friday, with both teams looking to recover from one-sided defeats handed out to them in their first matches.